What makes a rooflight BIM object?

A BIM object, while providing an important visual representation of products and materials for use in design and construction drawings, must offer a lot more than that.

Boiled down to the essentials, a BIM object is actually better equated to a spreadsheet in the way that it details the properties of the product in question.

As an overview, our rooflight BIM objects typically contain the following:

• Product names and codes
• A picture file illustrating the actual product
• A link to download the corresponding technical datasheet
• Details of any product approvals (for example, BBA and LPCB certification, or Secured by Design approval)
• Geometric information (the physical dimensions of the rooflight)
• The U-value achieved
• The precise glazing specification

One of the biggest challenges faced by the construction industry in adopting BIM is sharing information in a common format between different software − especially since the information requirements for different types of products varies so widely.